


lately i've been losing sleep (dreaming 'bout the things that we could be)

by orphan_account



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Best Friends, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gen, M/M, Miraculous Ladybug AU, Pining, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-31
Updated: 2020-05-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:48:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24466735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: nini salazar-roberts is a superhero, who is in love with her best-friend, who is also a superhero, who is in love with her alter-ego. they decide that they want to get over each other, with each other.
Relationships: Ashlyn Caswell/Kourtney, Ricky Bowen & Nini Salazar-Roberts, Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts, Seb Matthew-Smith/Carlos Rodriguez
Comments: 3
Kudos: 51





	lately i've been losing sleep (dreaming 'bout the things that we could be)

**Author's Note:**

> hi!  
> this is based on miraculous ladybug as far as the love square and the fact that superheroes exist, but the rest is different  
> sorry about how short this is, but it mostly just sets the story up
> 
> \- everyone is a sophomore at NYU, they all grew up in NY bc it's where it's the easiest to throw in superhero activity and college lol  
> \- nini's alter ego is allegra, whose superpowers i based on starlight from the boys. her powers include energy absorption, energy attacks, bio-luminescence, and slightly enhanced strength and durability. her costume isn't that important but i envision it being similar to starlight's, with a white mask and her hair in a bun.  
> \- she's majoring in astronomy and minoring in music  
> -ricky's alter ego is orion (bc nini showed him the constellation when they were kids and he thought it sounded cool) and his powers are similar to spiderman w/o the spider part- superstrength, enhanced senses, agility, and the ability to jump insane distances similar to flying  
> -he's majoring in literature and minoring in music  
> -ricky & nini have been best friends since childhood, similar to the show, but have never dated  
> -kourt knows about nini's identity, big red knows about ricky's
> 
> n e ways: i hope you enjoy this! please leave feedback and lmk if you want more updates

If the barrage of bullets flying in her direction didn’t kill her, then Nini swore on her Lola that Orion’s shitty jokes would. They are in the midst of stopping an armed robbery of a homely corner bodega in Washington Heights, it is 90 degrees outside, and her partner is actively exchanging blows with a heavily-muscled robber when he has the audacity to snark

“It’s getting pretty _heated_ in here, isn’t it princess?”

“Not the time,” she groans “and it’s _Allegra_.”

She inhales, channeling the electricity that has been coursing through her veins out through her extended fingertips. The air around her sparks at her command, and her beam of light knocks the bullets, gun, and gunman to the ground simultaneously. When she looks back over at Orion, he has already disarmed handcuffed two of the thieves, and is walking over to get to work on the third.

“You know…” he muses, his silvery blue suit and mask reflecting the light of her golden sparks, “we don’t have to be _all_ business _all_ the time.”

She gives him a gentle, reproaching smile. “Small talk just isn’t in the job description.”

///

Nini’s Wednesday morning music composition class is her favorite. She is majoring in astronomy, minoring in music— and the way she feels when she’s writing songs is the same way she feels when she is gazing at the stars. The simultaneous possibility and impossibility of it all never fails to amaze her. Even the physical exhaustion of foiling two robberies and fending off cheesy flirting from her crime-fighting partner before running to her 10 AM lecture isn’t enough to dampen her mood. She’s flipping through her half-finished pages of sheet music, when Ricky Bowen collapses on the seat next to hers. She’ll never admit it out loud, but he’s the real reason she loves this class so much. Her best friend is gesturing animatedly, and she _is_ half-listening to his story about Big Red and his orthodontist, but she’s mostly paying attention to how messy his curls are today, how warm his eyes are, how wholly and irresponsibly she loves him.

“Neens?” She jumps at the feeling of his hand on her shoulder, at the amused expression on his face. She closes her eyes for a moment before answering.

“Sorry, my physics class has made it impossible for me to get any sleep.” As hard as she tries, her voice is tinged with a faint British accent. Fuck. Ricky’s face grows more concerned, but he seems to account it to her lack of rest after a few moments.

He removes his hand from her shoulder, and she mourns the loss of contact as he roots around in his bag for a few moments.

“You know,” he drawls, mock theatricality in his voice “you’re lucky you’ve got the best best friend in the world.”

She smiles softly at him. “Yeah, Kourtney’s pretty great. A lot less drama, too.”

Ricky pouts at her, like a beseeching child, as he hands her a bottle of her favorite peppermint iced coffee. She immediately beams and throws her arms around him, relishing the moment before letting go. She’s spent hours wondering why she has the specific powers that she does. Not flying or telekinesis or super-speed— but the ability to draw light from the unlikeliest of places. In moments like this, when she thinks of the unrelenting warmth and compassion of the boy next to her, she thinks she might understand.

///

She’s still thinking about him, two hours later, when she’s at lunch with a couple of their other friends. She knows that Ricky is probably daydreaming or dozing off in his Romantic literature class, while she is crammed into their regular booth at the Starlight Diner with Kourtney, Ashlyn, Seb, and EJ. They’ve all been friends since high school, and they know her better than almost anybody.

“All I’m saying is that if I was Allegra, I’d jump Orion.” The mention of her alter ego is enough to jolt her back into reality.

“EJ, you’re kidding,” she exclaims as she steals one of his fries, “they’re _superheroes._ Besides, they’re probably super old and gross under the masks.”

Kourtney shoots her a knowing stare, and Nini can practically hear the “ _you aren’t smooth at all, Nina Salazar-Roberts”_ in her head.

“C’mon, you know Nini only has eyes for one white boy…” Kourtney effectively transitions the group from one topic that makes Nini uncomfortable to another. She drops her head into her hands, attempting to block out the sound of her friends laughing at her pain.

“Nins, you have to tell him eventually,” Seb’s says kindly “that boy adores you.” Nini just grumbles into her hands.

The thing is, is that Seb isn’t wrong. She knows that Ricky loves her, platonically. They’ve been each other’s constants since they met in kindergarten, and he nicknamed her Nini, and she thought that the way that her name sounded in his voice was better than anything else, so she’d better keep it. He was there when she picked up her ukulele for the first time and sang a song about clouds, and when she went stargazing for the first time and decided she wanted to understand everything that she saw. He was there when her first boyfriend broke up with her, and when she broke her arm climbing the tree in his backyard. She was there when he read his first book, and when he wrote his first story about two best friends exploring a magical world together. She was there when his parents started fighting, and when he started to feel like the universe wasn’t full of the love and magic he had always believed in. So, she knows that nothing could make Ricky stop being her friend. She knows that. But she also knows that he has feelings for someone else, he hasn’t given her details outside of how brave and fierce she is, and Nini knows that that person could be anyone in the world except her.

///

Nini’s sitting on the roof of her dorm building, experimentally strumming chords for her current composition, trying to find a progression that captures the mixture of melancholy and joy it expresses. She’s working on the refrain when she hears a deep voice, “that’s pretty.” She jumps and clutches her ukulele to her chest, as the person laughs and holds his hands up. She looks up, expecting a frat boy, and instead sees the silver-clad figure of her superhero partner.

“Uh. Is this roof like a secret superhero base or something?” she blurts out. There’s a warmth in his eyes that seems familiar but she can’t place as he settles down besides her.

He laughs. “Nah, I just needed to clear my head for a bit. I didn’t know that anyone came here.” There’s a vulnerability in Orion’s voice that she’s never heard, not in two years of gallivanting around the city with him as they save each other’s lives.

“Oh. What’s going on?” she prods. “Girl problems?” She was mostly joking, but he nods shyly. Again, the gesture is foreign to her. She’s used to the Orion that gets thirsted over in his spandex, and flirts with her as a joke in the middle of crime scenes. She’s never seen him this human before, this empathetic.

“You could say that.” There’s something bitter in his voice that makes her heart clench. “I’ve just had feelings for someone for a long time and… I don’t think they’ll ever be reciprocated.”

Nini looks at him, truly looks at him, under the moonlight. Most of his skin is covered by his suit, but she can see scattered constellations of freckles across his cheek. For the first time, she considers how truly they know each other. Not the Nini sitting on this roof, too scared to tell her best friend how she feels, but the Nini that can make light erupt from her fingertips. The Nini that is strong and bold and fearless. No one except Kourtney knows about her alter-ego, but he is the only person on the planet that could truly understand it. Nini knows that it’s unrealistic and slightly too whimsical for her to believe in destiny, in loves that are written in the stars: but she does. She doesn’t think it was a coincidence that Orion was drawn to this rooftop, that his heart is broken in the same way that hers is.

He just holds her gaze and she considers him, then holds his breath as she traces her thumb over his freckles. Orion was one of the first constellations she learned, and she knows that if she looks at the night sky right now, she will see it above her. Constant.


End file.
